2020 was a difficult year for all of us, but it was an especially tough one for preschool teacher Joe Camp. Luckily, however, the year has ended on a high note for him that has restored his faith in the world.

Camp had been a preschool teacher for twenty years before he was laid off back in September. Just one month later, things got even worse for him when his father died.

“I just recently got employed at a car dealership auto sales center,” said Camp. “I was a teacher for 20 years, a preschool teacher, and I got laid off on September 6. A month after that, my dad passed away. And it put me in a dark place. But I have a lot of friends and family that just told me to keep sticking in there, keep believing in myself.”

Camp has a longstanding tradition in which he buys a scratch-off ticket every Thursday morning, but on this particular morning, he decided to treat himself by purchasing two.

“I didn’t win on the first one, so I tried the second and I scratched it off, and I fell to my knees at the gas pump,” he said.

Camp was overwhelmed when he realized he had won the $250,000 prize!

Way to go, Joe Camp! Joe won $250,000 playing Gold Rush on Thursday. He purchased the winning ticket from Coulwood BP on Belhaven Blvd. in #Charlotte. “What I plan on doing with my winnings is having a future for my daughter,” he said. #NCLottery https://t.co/BT1NI99Qg4 pic.twitter.com/la4X9bSSc9

— NC Education Lottery (@nclottery) December 22, 2020

“What I plan on doing with my winnings is having a future for my daughter,” he said, adding that he plans to buy a new home for himself and his daughter and then save the rest of the money for her education.

The odds of him winning this prize were just 1 in 1.2 million. The $250,000 Gold Rush game started back in August, and it hands out prizes of $5 up to seven top prizes of $250,000. Officials with the lottery say that four of the top prizes have already been awarded.

Camp claimed his prize at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, and after taxes, he walked away with $176,876.

“I want to get a home because I want to set it up for my family, my grandkids,” Camp said. “I want to have something for us. I never had anything, no one passed anything down, and that’s what I want to do.”